Pui Ching Middle School attended the 31^st China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest together with contestant schools coming from 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region.  Pui Ching is the first school in Macao to be recognized as one of the 10 Most Innovative Schools in the People’s Republic of China.  The awards ceremony was held on July 17 at East China Normal University.  Pui Ching chancellor Dr. Lo Veng Cheong, principal Dr. Kam Fai Kou and vice principal Dr. Keng Lim Chan accepted the honour for the school at the ceremony. 

The China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest was held from the 13^th to the 19^th at East China Normal University.  34 contingents, close to 500 youth contestants, 200 members of technical support and over 100 judges came together at this event.  The vice president of the People’s Republic of China Mr. Yuan Chao Li was also there to show his support.

Our school held an English training course for our secondary school English teachers from June 13^th to July 8^th.  The 30-hour programme was tailor-made for our school by the Bell Centre of Macau Polytechnic Institute and taught by experienced trainers Mr. David Sansom and Mr. John Wheeler.  The purpose of the course is to improve teaching effectiveness in English reading and writing.

Bell’s in-house training is designed to create an English teaching and learning environment.  It aims to promote student autonomy and interest in second language learning through the teaching of independent reading skills, incorporation of jigsaw reading, game-based learning, process writing, and learner self-editing. 

The alternative teaching approaches have shed new light on the familiar subject of language teaching.  It is hoped that the course will prepare our teachers to meet society’s growing demand for autonomous learners.

Funded by the Macau Foundation, our school’s 42-membered orchestra participated in the 2^nd Greater China Region School Music Festival held in Guangzhou from July 12^th to 14^th.

The Greater China Region School Music Festival was a two-day event featuring two concerts and close to 300 student musicians from Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The event drew an audience of thousands of viewers.

In addition to performing select pieces, student bands from all over the Greater China Region came together in a 100-membered orchestra, bringing alive on stage well-known pieces like Taiwanese composer Che-Yi Lee’s Dancing Strings and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. For the school performance, our orchestra played Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.3, Op.73.

Pui Ching participated in the International Outstanding E-Learning Awards Scheme hosted by the University of Hong Kong E-Learning Development Laboratory and won the Gold Award, the only highest award in the international category (which covers both schools in the mainland and overseas schools). Pui Ching vice-principal Mr. Keng Man Kuok was also invited to share the outcomes of e-learning at the event. 

The winner of the Gold Award in the university category was the Harvard Graduate School of Education.